Program Assessment Process
Assessment is evaluating and improving student learning through four steps:
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establishing learning goals/objectives/outcomes
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providing learning opportunities
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assessing student learning
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using the results of assessment to improve student learning and the assessment process itself
Student learning is assessed to:
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ensure that students are learning what we want them to learn.
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provide an opportunity to make programmatic improvements based on assessments.
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document student learning for interested stakeholders.
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use valid and reliable evidence to demonstrate student learning and to improve it
General Principles of Assessment
Theassessment process is intended to embody the following principles:
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Design assessment efforts to be useful for multiple purposes and audiences including course improvement, program improvement, program review, external accreditation and WASC accreditation.
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Gather useful assessment evidence efficiently; this includes encouraging externally accredited programs to use their existing assessment efforts to fulfill university assessment expectations to the degree possible.
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Support programs with resources to help with assessment, including rubrics, descriptions of best practices, model timetables, model reports, model evidence collection and storage practices, and so on.
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Empower faculty and programs with maximum feasible control over how and when they assess their Program Learning Objectives (PLOs).
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Centralize and standardize evidence collection and storage, and make assessment evidence easily available to programs.
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Reaffirm that assessment evidence is not to be used to evaluate individual faculty members or in the RPT process.
Assessment Strategy: The Three-level process:
a) Annual Program Assessment
During each program review cycle, the program should assess all of its program learning objectives. In each year, each program should engage in some aspect of the assessment process (gathering evidence, analyzing evidence, reflecting on the evidence, implementing changes, assessing those changes, assessing the assessment process). Program decides which PLOs to assess when, and they also decide how to assess them. The GSAAC will provide advice and guidance (rubrics, information about best practices, workshops and training opportunities, templates, and so on). If the programs is already engaged in assessment efforts to maintain external accreditation are encouraged to use those efforts to fulfill their assessment obligations as well, to the degree possible. The main purpose of program-level assessment is to ensure student learning at the program level, and to enable program improvement as necessary.
b) GSAAC/General Education Assessment
GSAAC is conducting an institutional level assessment that parallels program-level efforts and is intended to assess learning outcomes across the university. The tentative ten-year plan is designed to align the WASC core competencies, the Learning Objectives and the GE Program Learning Outcomes. Programs may want to consider aligning their assessment efforts with this schedule to take advantage of the various resources. Listed below are two documents that illustrate the assessment flow visually with graphs.
c) Program Review
Program Review -– As program undergos periodic program review, it will generally be asked to undertake an additional assessment effort focused on an area of special interest to Academic Programs. For example, programs might be asked to assess the effectiveness of their Senior Project as a capstone experience. Academic Programs will provide programs with information about this additional assessment effort at least one year in advance, to allow for planning. In addition, Academic Programs will also coordinate university-wide assessment-related efforts; these university-wide efforts will generally require little from individual programs.